It started years ago very simply with a stop watch, then we moved to heart rate monitors, iPhone fitness apps, and now to wearable activity monitors / wrist bands - with each progressive step these devices provided us with increasingly more real time data about some aspect of our fitness endeavors and health related activities. Many of the THPL community members have tried or continue to use technologies and tools like these devices. Sometimes it is driven by curiosity and other times by necessity – in each case what we are learning is that they can be a core element of how to think about improving performance.

The data that is captured by these devices can provide the info required for improving performance – first as a baseline, then as a measure of progress and then as the foundation for goal setting. This is how we can get more serious about our THPL mission and improving our own performance over time. We know that just the sheer act of measuring changes outcomes but it seems like we are starting to move beyond the measurement as a post-event tool to one that provides us real time data during activity so we can modify mid-stream to improve the result.

And when we get good at interpreting the data we can leverage it to stay on track and ultimately to motivate us to drive to the next level. The real intrigue is that we are just in the truly formative phase of measuring performance – we need to keep abreast of the new developments as we can have fun using them and learn how to improve our performance at the same time. An example of the next innovation is an announcement from Intel whereby they unveiled biometric head phones that provide fitness tracking capabilities. In addition listening to your favorite music, they can also measure your heart rate, calorie count, number of steps, as well as other health stats. Now that’s some smart ear buds! We will have to keep stepping up our proverbial game and these new devices are one way to do that